Does high vaccine coverage among the adult population grant the unvaccinated younger population indirect protection against SARS-CoV-2? PLUS_1622 Eurosurveillanc SARSCoV2 COVID19 Protection VaccineCoverage
By Dr. Chinta SidharthanOct 3 2022Reviewed by Aimee Molineux In a recent study published in Eurosurveillance, researchers investigated whether the mass vaccination of the adult population of Schwaz, Austria, against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 conferred an indirect protective effect on the proportion of unvaccinated children in the general population.
The district of Schwaz in Austria had about 70% of its adult population vaccinated during the predominance of the Beta variant of SARS-CoV-2 as the Comirnaty vaccine had been made available to all its adult residents. Schwaz presented an ideal setting to test whether vaccination of large portions of the adult population resulted in population immunity and provided indirect protection to the unvaccinated younger population.
The study compared two age cohorts in Schwaz and the same in other districts. One age cohort comprised unvaccinated children below 16 years of age, and the other cohort contained adults between the age of 16 and 50 — the age group most likely to interact with children. All recorded infections according to the age group were considered the outcome variable.
Results The results indicated an increase from 5% to 60% in the vaccination coverage among the 16- to 50-year-old individuals was followed by a 40 to 60% reduction in SARS-CoV-2 infections among children in Schwaz, compared to the control districts.